Moscow State Pedagogical University

The major educational and scientific institution in Moscow, Russia, with eighteen faculties and seven branches operational in other Russian cities.

The history of Moscow State Pedagogical University began in 1872 when V. Guerrier founded the Moscow Higher Women's Courses.

The history of the Moscow Pedagogical State University, dating back almost 150 years, began in November 1872, when the Russian historian and public figure Vladimir Guerrier, with the approval of Emperor Alexander II, founded the Moscow Higher Women's Courses — the first educational institution in Russia that opened access to higher education for women of any class at home. Before that, they could only study at foreign universities.

Students of Higher Women's Courses

Hall The main building of the Moscow Pedagogical State University

At first, the educational program was two-year, there were almost no specializations, historical and philological disciplines prevailed. The courses were located in different buildings over the years, including the Polytechnic Museum building. In the middle of 1880, the number of listeners exceeded 200 people — a lot for those years. Recruitment to the Moscow Higher Women's Courses was discontinued in 1886, after which they existed in the format of "public lectures" for women at the Polytechnic Museum and "collective lessons" organized by the Moscow Society of Educators and Teachers.

The work of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses was resumed in 1900 — the courses received the status of a state institution, two faculties were opened — physics and mathematics and history and philology. In 1905, during the first Russian revolution, when Vladimir Guerrier went abroad, the outstanding Russian thinker Vladimir Vernadsky, the founder of several sciences, the author of the doctrine of the biosphere, was elected director of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, but he never took up his duties. However, he worked for Moscow Higher Women's Courses as a professor, having opened a mineralogical museum here.

In the same 1905, the Moscow Higher Women's Courses was headed by 36-year-old Sergey Chaplygin— one of the founders of modern hydroaerodynamics, later an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, Moscow Higher Women's Courses grew into a large educational institution with faculties in all major scientific areas of those years.

On October 5, 1913, the main classroom building was opened on Malaya Pirogovskaya Street, house 1 — its glass roof was designed by the famous engineer Vladimir Shukhov.

Outstanding representatives of pre-revolutionary scientific thought have taught at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses in different years.

The professors of history were Vasily Klyuchevsky, the recognized leader of the Moscow Historical School, and Ivan Tsvetaev, the creator and first director of the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), the father of the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva. Physics was taught by Alexey Stoletov, an outstanding Russian physicist and electrical engineer, astronomy by Fyodor Bredikhin, the founder of the Moscow Astrophysical School and director of the Pulkovo Observatory, chemistry by Nikolai Zelinsky, the inventor of the coal gas mask used in the First World War.

The scientific and teaching activities of the founder of Russian experimental biology Nikolai Koltsov, geographer and anthropologist (author of the term "anthroposphere") are connected with the Moscow Higher Women's Courses Dmitry Anuchin, the founder of nutrition physiology Mikhail Shaternikov, and other famous scientists, many of whom continued their scientific careers under the Soviet regime.

In 1918, by the decision of the People's Commissariat of Education, the Moscow Higher Women's Courses was transformed into the Second Moscow State University (the Second MSU) consisting of three faculties: historical and philological, physical and mathematical, medical.

From 1919 to 1924, the rector of the Second Moscow State University was Sergey Nametkin, an outstanding organic chemist, later an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During his rectorship — in 1921 — the pedagogical faculty was opened, which in subsequent years determined the face of the university.

In 1930, the Second Moscow State University was divided into three independent universities, its successor was one of them — the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (MGPI). At first, MGPI was named after Andrei Bubnov, People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, and then — until 1997 - Vladimir Lenin, which soon led to the appearance of a brand that has survived to this day — "Lenin Pedagogical Institute".

Lenin in Second Moscow State University

In the 1920s and 30s, Otto Schmidt, a geographer, mathematician and astronomer, an Arctic researcher, Nikolai Baransky, the founder of economic geography in the USSR, Alexander Khinchin, one of the founders of the Soviet school of number theory and probability theory, Benjamin Kagan, the creator of the school of differential geometry, Grigory Landsberg, the founder of the scientific school of spectroscopy and spectral analysis. Igor Tamm, the future Nobel Prize winner in physics, and Lev Vygotsky, the world's most famous Russian psychologist, taught here.

During the Great Patriotic War, MGPI interrupted work only for a month in the autumn of 1941, when Moscow was under siege. Due to the war, the term of study was reduced to three years, many students, graduate students, and teachers went to the front, four became Heroes of the Soviet Union. In 1944, Higher Pedagogical courses were opened at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, at the same time the institute received the right to defend dissertations at faculties. During the war, the Moscow Defectological Institute and the Moscow Industrial Pedagogical Institute named after K. Liebknecht were attached to the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. Later, in 1960, the Moscow City Pedagogical Institute named after V. P. Potemkin was attached to the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.

In the post-war years, Alexey Losev, a world-famous philosopher and philologist, researcher of antiquity, Peter Novikov, a mathematician, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was dismissed from the university for writing in defense of his dissident student, and other outstanding scientists taught at MSPI. The first methodological departments in the country were organized in the MSPI, which were headed by scientists-teachers who are well aware of the specifics of the work of secondary and higher schools. University teachers wrote textbooks, which were used by more than one generation of Russian schoolchildren and students, among the authors of the most popular textbooks is geographer Vladimir Maksakovsky, a professor at the Moscow State University, who celebrated his 90th anniversary in June 2014.

For great achievements in the training of highly qualified teaching staff, the development of scientific research, and in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 10, 1972, the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Despite the fact that the main task of MSPI has always been the training of personnel for school education, in the post-war years, university teachers conducted applied scientific research for other industries. In industry, for example, the results of research by university staff related to the protection of metals from corrosion (Professor Stepan Balezin), mineral exploration (Head of the Department of Geology Vera Varsonofieva), dye chemistry (Head of the Laboratory of Dye Chemistry and Chromaticity Theory Vsevolod Izmailsky) were used.

In the Soviet Union, there was a strict system of distribution of university graduates, and after graduating from a pedagogical institute, a person, as a rule, began to work as a teacher at school. Among teachers, school principals, managers, education researchers, whose names are widely known today, there are many graduates of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.

One can name the ex-head of the Moscow Department of Education Lyubov Kezina and the director of the Moscow Education Center N109 Evgeny Yamburg, who developed the professional standard of a teacher in 2013, many other school principals and famous teachers in Moscow.

Yuri Vizbor and students

But even in the Soviet years, after graduating from the pedagogical institute, young people chose a variety of career paths. Among the graduates, there are famous writers (Yuri Koval, Sergey Ivanov, Yuri Ryashentsev) and directors (Pyotr Fomenko, Georgy Babushkin, Vladimir Makedonsky). During the Khrushchev thaw, a whole constellation of bards emerged from the MSPI student environment — Yuri Vizbor, Ada Yakusheva, Yuli Kim, Vadim Egorov, Yuri Koval and others, and thanks to the song culture that developed at that time, the abbreviation of the MSPI was also deciphered as the "Moscow State Singing Institute". Among the graduates of different years there are successful politicians — for example, State Duma deputies Vladimir Lukin and Andrey Isaev; journalists - editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow Alexey Venediktov, TV presenter Alexander Arkhangelsky.

In 1987, mathematician Viktor Matrosov, who headed the university for more than 25 years, became a corresponding member and then an academician of two-state academies - the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Education, was elected rector of MSPI. In August 1990, the Moscow State Pedagogical University was transformed into the Moscow State Pedagogical University named after V.I. Lenin, which became the first pedagogical university in the world.

In the 1990s, MPSU experienced the same difficulties as all Russian education, the main one of which was a catastrophic lack of state funding. Despite this, the university continued to develop — new departments were created, new specialties and areas of training were opened. In 1992, MPSU was one of the first in the country to use a two-stage training system "bachelor + master". Ties with schools in Moscow, where university students are interning, have been maintained and developed. In the same year, MPSU was awarded a certificate of honor by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation for its great contribution to the training of highly qualified scientific and pedagogical personnel and in connection with the 120th anniversary of its foundation.

In 2007, according to the results of the all-Russian competition, MPSU became one of the universities that received state support for the implementation of innovative educational programs within the framework of the priority national project "Education". In two years, new developments have appeared in the content of education, educational technologies, and the information environment of the university. While remaining pedagogical in the main direction of personnel training, MPSU continues to develop as a multidisciplinary university. This also applies to scientific research. In 2008, the scientific and educational center "Nanotechnology" was established at the University, which performs fundamental theoretical and experimental studies of the structures, properties, and functions of complex biopolymers and nanomaterials. MSU's research on superconductivity is world-famous.

In 2009, the MPSU was included in the State Code of Especially Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation.

In the post-Soviet period, MPSU de facto remains the "main pedagogical university of the country", combining the efforts of colleagues from other pedagogical universities and classical universities, where teachers are also trained. Based on the MPSU, there is an Educational and Methodological Association for education in the field of teacher training. Representatives of the university participate in the development and correction of conceptual state documents defining the ways of development not only of pedagogical education but also of the Russian education system as a whole. The commission for awarding prizes of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education works annually based on the MPSU.

In August 2013, Alexey Lvovich Semenov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and RAO, who previously headed the State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education in Moscow "Moscow Institute of Open Education", specializing in the implementation of programs of additional professional education, was appointed acting Rector of MPSU.

Under the leadership of A.L.Semenov, the university became a participant in several major projects, including those related to the modernization of teacher education in Russia. Thus, with the participation of representatives of the MPSU, a draft Concept for supporting the development of pedagogical education was developed, the main provisions of which were included in the Comprehensive Program for Improving the professional Level of the teaching staff of educational organizations. In 2015, MPSU successfully passed state accreditation.

A.L.Semenov's activity as the head of the MPSU was characterized by numerous innovations, which often came into conflict with the established traditions of the university and pedagogical education in general. Many initiatives did not find support in the team and among the leading teachers of the university. A particularly negative reaction was caused by the desire to reduce the fundamental part of the educational process and the subject training of future teachers. The ambiguous attitude of many members of the team was also caused by the general style of university management.

In November 2016, Alexey Vladimirovich Lubkov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of RAO, was appointed Acting Rector of MPSU. Before that, A.V. Lubkov worked as Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy in Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

In 1978 -1983 he studied at the Faculty of History of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin, from which he graduated with honors. During his student years, he was a Lenin scholarship holder, secretary of the faculty Komsomol, member of the Komsomol committee of the Institute. Since 1983, he worked at the Department of History of the USSR (Soviet period) as an assistant, senior lecturer. In 1984-1987 he was the secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Institute and a member of the Lenin RK Komsomol of Moscow. He took an active part in the organization and holding of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow (1985), for which he was awarded a high state award - the medal "For Labor Valor".

After his postgraduate studies in 1990, under the guidance of Professor E.M. Shchagin, he defended his Ph.D. thesis. After defending his dissertation, he worked as an associate professor of the Department of Modern Russian History. In 1991-1998 he was the dean of the Faculty of History of the Moscow State University. In 1998 he defended his doctoral dissertation. In the future, until 2006, he was the vice-rector for scientific work – the first vice-rector of the Moscow State University. At the same time, he worked as a professor of the Department of Modern Russian History, and in 2002-2009 - Acting head of the Department of Russian History of the Moscow State University.

In 2006 - 2013, he worked at Moscow Institute of Open Education as a vice-rector and part-time professor of the Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines, head of the specified department.

In 2013-2014 - held the position of Vice-rector of the Moscow State University. In 2016, he joined the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation as Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy in Higher Education.

On May 23, 2017, a Conference of employees and students on the election of the rector on an alternative basis was held at the MPSU. According to the results of a secret ballot, Acting Rector A.V. Lubkov was elected to the position of rector of the University by an overwhelming number of votes.

Presenting his program at the Conference of Employees and Students for the election of the rector on an alternative basis, A.V. Lubkov proposed a comprehensive approach to the innovative development of the MPSU, which implies, in particular, the broad involvement of the university in various forms of partnership with high-tech companies, structures of the Russian Academy of Sciences and RAO, the business sector, government, and public organizations. Much attention to the candidate's program was also paid to the issues of participation of MPSU in projects of regional and federal scale, increasing the extra-budgetary income of the university, modernizing its social infrastructure, increasing the level of social protection of employees, and, first of all, the teaching staff, supporting young scientists and teachers, developing international and interregional academic cooperation.

A special emphasis in the program of A.V.Lubkov was placed on the problems of the formation of citizenship, patriotism, and family values among students, raising the level of their spiritual and moral culture, developing interaction with the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional confessions for our country.

At the beginning of 2017, at the initiative of A.V. Lubkov, the university developed and adopted the "Plan of anti-crisis measures of the MPSU", which became the basis for activities to achieve financial stability at the university. In addition, the Academic Council reviewed and approved a strategic document – "The concept of the development of MPSU for the period 2017-2020: from revival to the creation of a new image of pedagogical education."

The concept is based on the revival of classical domestic standards of teacher training – with a clearly defined subject matter, moral and educational component, as well as their close connection with modern socio-cultural realities, the introduction of innovative technologies, digitalization, and other urgent tasks facing Russian education. As it was noted in one of the central media, "one of the key trends of systemic recovery has been announced, which is vigorously pursued by the head of the Ministry of Education and Science O.Y.Vasilyeva." The development concept of MPSU combines the unique features, historical traditions, and potential of the university as the first pedagogical university in Russia, as well as the best practices of leading universities in the world.

The Concept formulates the modern mission of the Moscow State University, which consists in "ensuring the continuity and development of the culture of modern Russia through the restoration of domestic pedagogical education based on a harmonious combination of traditions and innovations, the formation of Russian identity and professionalism of future teachers, the full disclosure of their talents." The Concept represents a return to the fundamental and objective nature of teacher training in the form of a synthesis of the subject, psychological, pedagogical, cultural, and general professional training.

The implementation of the Concept will allow us to qualitatively change the approach to the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel based on the principles of continuity and renewal. During the implementation of the Concept, special attention is planned to be paid to the participation of MPSU in international educational projects. A particularly important area will be the university's participation in the development of a package of educational and educational products for the systematic promotion of the Russian language and culture Russia abroad.

As part of the implementation of the Concept during 2017, the curricula and basic educational programs of higher education were revised to strengthen their fundamental, subject, and professional orientation; competitive elections were held for the positions of teaching staff, the election of heads of departments and deans of faculties with the establishment of the term of the employment contract up to 5 years, which allowed to stabilize the personnel situation and to level out the distortions of the personnel policy of previous years; a set of organizational and staff measures has been implemented aimed at optimizing the functional structure of the university, achieving planned tasks for increasing the salaries of the teaching staff.

Consistent implementation of the "Plan of anti-crisis measures of the Moscow State University" and the Concept in 2017 allowed not only to eliminate negative trends in certain areas of the university's activities but also to give a new impetus to the development of educational, scientific, and international activities of the university, significantly strengthen its cultural and educational significance.

On November 27, 2017, A.V. Lubkov presented the Report of the Rector of MPSU to the Academic Council: "On the results of the University's work for the 2016-2017 academic years, the tasks and work plan of the University for the 2017-2018 academic years", which was unanimously approved by the Academic Council.

At the present stage, MPSU is actively involved in the process of training new personnel for the digital economy in the field of digital education. Based on Russian traditions, taking into account global and national values, taking into account the personal and cultural components of innovation, the University implements a platform for the development of digital technologies and network models of unified information and educational environment that will work for the benefit of all domestic education.

Hall The main building of the Moscow Pedagogical State University

The main building of the University on Malaya Pirogovskaya street, 1, p. 1, the construction of which was completed in 1913. It was designed specifically as a building of an educational institution - the Moscow Higher Women's Courses. Currently, it houses the Faculty of Philology, as well as the rector's office and the main central services of the university.

Academic building on Vernadsky Avenue

The second most important building is the Faculty of Humanities, located at 88 Vernadsky Avenue. It houses the following institutes and faculties of the Moscow State University: Institute of Childhood, Institute of Foreign Languages, Institute of Social and Humanitarian Education, Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Health, Institute of History and Politics, Institute of International Education. The building has been under construction since the late 1970s, opened in 1990.

faculty of physics, technology and information systems

Not far from the Novodevichy Monastery there is a building with faculty of physics, technology, and information systems

The oldest building of the Moscow State Pedagogical University is the building of the Faculty of Chemistry in Nesvizhevsky Lane, 3, built in 1798 as a residential building.